The Online TOEFL Course “The 7-Step System to Pass the TOEFL iBT” includes a section on pronunciation which includes a pre-test, 48 pronunciation lessons, and a post-test to help students speak more intelligibly and more fluently.
First of all, the pronunciation section in this Online TOEFL Course offers a diagnostic pre-test so that Michael Buckhoff—owner, founder, materials writer, and instructor—can listen to and evaluate problems that students may have in one, some, or all of the following areas: vowels, consonants, syllable division and grammatical word endings, word stress, sentence rhythm, intonation, thought groups, and blending. With an MA in English Composition/TESOL and more than 20 years of teaching experience, Buckhoff has the experience to help students reduce their accents and improve their intelligibility of American English.
Second of all, once students get their diagnostic pre-test results, they can start studying 48 pronunciation lessons, each of which include mastery and voice recording exercises in which the students record themselves practicing the target sounds and pronunciation patterns of the lesson. Moreover, if students opt for the additional Speak Clearly Error Correction Service, they can get pronunciation feedback on all 48 lessons from TOEFL Pronunciation Mentor Michael Buckhoff. In fact, if students opt for this additional service, they can post three pronunciation or three independent speaking practice tests each day, and Buckhoff will evaluate the responses in about 24 hours.
Third of all, once students have completed the pre-tests and studied the recommended lessons to help them improve, they then complete the pronunciation post-test whose purpose is to determine whether or not students have mastered all of the lessons in this section of the course. Therefore, students will record themselves reading three paragraphs and answering three personal experience questions. After, they either e-mail or submit their voice recordings online to Buckhoff, who listens to, evaluates, and scores the post-test using custom-made intelligibility rubrics. The rubric begins at 1.1/7.0, which means “high beginner” and ends at 7.0/7.0, which means near-native speaker of American English. For those students wanting to score 26+ points on the speaking section of the TOEFL, Buckhoff recommends that they score a minimum of 26/30 points on the intelligibility post-test, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will reach their TOEFL Speaking goals.
All in all, students who complete the pronunciation and all the other vocabulary, grammar, listening, reading, writing, and speaking lessons in this Online TOEFL Course find themselves making satisfactory improvements in their academic English, hence improving their TOEFL scores as well.